Townhill: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just starts once your pump starts pulling it. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Townhill. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Townhill: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting KY12 0, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short stretch down Forest Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Townhill forecourt you're on, the Shell included. If you're on your own drive, leave it precisely where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a driveway in Headwell yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches until it's removed from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning around Townhill leaves things worse. In that tank only, time costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Asda's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main problem. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in the tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, and so watering it won't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Bowershall or the centre of Townhill equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, wherever the vehicle has stopped in Fife.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Townhill: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. The refill is rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped off. A driver tips the bottle in outside their house, just off Loch Street, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by The Village Inn, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other motor of a family with both fuels — the cars drivers know least. Same mistake, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Townhill or the rest of Fife.
Townhill: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps part way across Townhill or coming back from Townhill Country Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M90, under 3 miles from Townhill, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Townhill to the car park by Townhill Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Dunfermline, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once your engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. If it is spotted early, permanent damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Townhill?
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a road near Townhill War Memorial, a driveway, a layby or a filling station in Townhill, and the van travels to it. The work rests on three replies, and our engineers ask for before all else — what got in, the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is drained, on the spot. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't clear away by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of your vehicle. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Dunfermline Queen Margaret or on a drive around Townhill. We confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Townhill itself
Townhill is a suburban area located near Dunfermline in Fife, sitting at an elevation of 136 metres in a generally low-lying inland area. Townhill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is situated close to other nearby places such as Kingseathill and Bellyeoman. Townhill has a population of around 1468 residents and is within walking distance of Dunfermline, the nearest city. Townhill is also near Wellwood, another local community.
Townhill and Fife: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Townhill go to teams that serve the places near it — Kingseathill, Bellyeoman plus Wellwood — and most of Fife beyond, throughout KY postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Townhill, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Townhill?
There's no fair single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Townhill & Kingseat Parish Church.
Before any figure, not afterwards, every call from Townhill opens with three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. When those are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
In Townhill and still beside your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best move available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran is everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Fife, Townhill included.